An interesting article, from my local paper, about the renaissance of aerospace in southern California in general and the South Bay in particular. Not sure Interorbital should be included in the list, though.
3 thoughts on “The New Space Race”
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Interorbital Systems, which is sending small satellites to low-Earth orbit for $8,000 from the Mojave Air & Space Port.
I’ve never understood why people (not necessarily you, Rand) who enthuse over concepts like nuclear pulse Orion, space elevators, Roton, Mars One, O’Neill colonies, etc. find Interorbital Systems so objectionable. Sure, they haven’t done much but since when was that a sin in space advocacy circles?
Do the Millirons poison stray cats or something?
Well, ignoring their general weirdness, which isn’t a crime, I think their ratio of what they claim they’ll do to what they’ve done, over two decades, is exceptionally high.
Never heard of them before. But from what I’m reading now their approach seems kind of obsolete and low tech. I mean Von Braun during WW2 figured out they were better off using a turbopump… Even OTRAG was supposed to use a simplistic pump IIRC.
I can only imagine the size of the rocket they would need to get something in orbit… and with WFNA in it… I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the launch.
At least they got something tangible they launched which is more than I can say for a lot of small space companies…